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Published: November 14th 2009
Kanyakumari - Friday 13 November The breakfast buffet at the GRT Regency in Madurai was one of the best I’ve ever seen - fresh pineapple juice, freshly-sliced papaya and pineapple, cereals, toast, cakes, croissants and chocolate-covered doughnuts, Indian foods of almost every type - for vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets, lots of western-style things, like chicken sausages, eggs cooked to order... You name it, they had it. Today, while I made my usual half-dozen trips to reload my plate, Lajpal decided that all this good eating was damaging his waistline and opted for just fruit juice, fresh fruit and a cup of masala chai. “I want to look like a cricket bat”, he said, “not a football!” Well, he does have to look trim in time for his marriage, although that’s probably a year to 18 months away and a suitable wife hasn’t yet been chosen, so he still has time!
This morning, our journey south from Madurai to Kanyakumari (formerly Cape Comorin) took us quickly out of the city onto National Highway 7. This is India’s longest motorway, running from the holy city of Varanasi (Benares) in the north of the country all the way down to Kanyakumari. Here,
Kanyakumari
From near our hotel looking towards the Vivekananda Memorial and Thiruvalluvar Statue
it was four smoothly-surfaced lanes, two each way, with a central reservation. Normal Indian rules of the road seemed to apply - you drive and overtake in whichever lane takes your fancy, sounding your horn at every opportunity and keeping an eye open for motorbikes, pedal cycles, cars or lorries coming towards you in your lane. In parts, where bridges were being rebuilt or the road was being repaired, there were poorly signed diversions. As some of these involved barriers across the carriageway without forewarning, it was fortunate there was little traffic and that we only reached a maximum speed of around 80kph (50mph). We relaxed, with seatbelts tightly fastened, confident that Jino was alert and accustomed to these road conditions.
Much of the route, like motorway travel anywhere, was rather boring. Scrub on both sides, grazed by large herds of goats and a few cows, gave way in wetter areas to cultivation of maize and rice. There were few houses and no service stations or toilet facilities for motorists. In places, people were collecting wood and bundling it up for fuel and grass was being cut from the roadside and central reservation for animal feed. Although the sky
The beach opposite the viewpoint
While some bathed here for religious reasons, the younger generation seemed to enjoy just being at the seaside was grey, we encountered only occasional heavy showers and, as we went further south, it stayed dry. Tall palms and electricity pylons appeared, along with pine, banana and coconut plantations, then the strange cone-shaped hills of the Agastya Malai range to the west. About 30kms before Kanyakumari, we were greeted by a surreal sight: the mother of all wind farms, hundreds of huge wind turbines, with blades lethargically turning, were spread over a vast area of agricultural land, almost as far as the eye could see. At about the same time, the car’s air-conditioning decided to stop working and we completed the journey with open windows providing a cooling breeze.
We reached the
Sparsa Resort Hotel beside the sea at Kanyakumari almost five hours after setting out and, almost immediately, went for a walk along the beach road to enjoy the view. This hotel is only a couple of years old and is set in very attractive and well-maintained gardens. As we were only staying for a night, we didn't have time to enjoy its tennis court, swimming pool or gym. Although the fabric of the building was very good, it seemed to be suffering from a lack of attention to
Kanyakumari
Lajpal, from the desert state of Rajasthan, could happily sit looking at the sea for ever!
detail - our room had a sea view but the huge window was so dirty that it wasn't a really good view; the in-room safe didn't work despite repeated requests for it to be repaired and, even if it did work, it wasn't securely fixed to anything; and it was more expensive to use the WiFi than in most London hotels! Oh, and there wasn't any hot water in the bathroom either.
Kanyakumari sits at the very southern tip of the Indian sub-continent, where the Bay of Bengal meets the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. It has great significance for Hindus and is dedicated to the goddess Devi Kanya. Pilgrims come here to bathe in the sacred waters and, while we saw some of these, most seemed to be young men just enjoying themselves splashing about in the waves, watched by girls in saris on the beach.
Just offshore are two interesting sights on twin rocks. On one is the Vivekananda Memorial, built in 1970 in memory of a philosopher and religious crusader, Swami Vivekananda, the “wandering monk” (1863 - 1902), who was said to have meditated on this rock. On the other is the immense Thiruvalluvar
Dawn at Kanyakumari
Although it was cloudy, the sun made a brief appearance Statue, India’s answer to the Statue of Liberty. It’s a 95-feet-high statue of the eponymous Tamil Nadu poet on a 38-feet-high base (total 133 feet). It was erected in 2000 to honour his 133-chapter work called “Thirukural”. Ferries shuttle between the port and the islands but, having noticed a threatening dark grey cloud advancing towards us, we were happy to just enjoy the sea views and soak up the atmosphere before returning to the hotel for a cuppa.
One of our reasons for coming here was to see the sunset from India’s Land’s End. Despite the gathering storm clouds, we were rewarded with a small but brilliant view from our west-facing room as the sun went down - see the panorama at the top of the page. During dinner (an average meal, so no lip-smacking detail this time), Lajpal decided that he definitely wanted to see the sunrise here too. So, the alarm clock was duly set for 5.30a.m. It rained during the night but, thankfully, Friday morning was dry. We walked, in the dark at first, along the seashore and, with groups of Indian tourists, watched the sun come up behind the towering clouds. Then it was back
Dawn at Kanyakumari
Lajpal and the sunrise to the hotel for a shower, breakfast and our last car journey with Jino up the coast to Varkala.
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liliram
liliram
I like your traveling style.....
Very interesting. I should be busy in the coming days, catching up with your blogs. Cheers!